The invention relates generally to industrial waste disposal. More particularly, the invention relates to environmentally acceptable methods for industrial waste disposal.
Desalination is the process by which salts are removed from saline water (i.e., generally seawater) to provide fresh water (i.e., generally potable water). As conventional sources of fresh water continue to be depleted and degraded, particularly in coastal regions, desalination continues to be a desirable option for obtaining fresh water supplies for many residential and commercial needs. Similarly, as desalination processes become more economically efficient within the context of fresh water supplies that may alternatively be obtained from remote fresh water sources, desalination also continues to provide an attractive economic option for providing fresh water supplies for residential and commercial needs, even including those residential and commercial needs that are remote from coastal regions.
In conjunction with the production of fresh water while using a desalination process, there is also produced a desalination concentrated brine waste product. Such a desalination concentrated brine waste product may be considerably more saline and more dense than the saline water source (i.e., typically seawater) feedstock material for the desalination process that produces the fresh water and the desalination concentrated brine waste product. Thus, without sufficient mixing, such a desalination concentrated brine waste product tends to accumulate at a bottom of a saline water body, such as an ocean, into which it is introduced, through an outfall. This high salinity level, and any fluctuation in this high salinity level, may impact sensitive bottom dwelling marine organisms and habitats in the vicinity of such an outfall. Moreover, undesirable impacts of such a desalination concentrated brine waste product outfall effluent may also vary widely as a function of a specific location of such an outfall.
In light of a continuing ability of desalination processes to meet the continuing needs for fresh water supplies in geographic locations that have considerable saline water resources and limited fresh water resources, desirable are methods, systems and apparatus for efficiently and ecologically soundly disposing of desalination concentrated brine waste product from desalination processes.